John Mackey talks to a fan during a signing of his book, Conscious Capitalism, at the Whole Foods in Potrero on January 22, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mackey is both co-founder and co-CEO of the Whole Foods supermarket chain.

Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle

John Mackey talks to a fan during a signing of his book, Conscious...

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John Mackey looks up to speak to a purchaser of his new book , "Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business" during a book signing at the Whole Foods in Potrero on January 22, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mackey is both co-founder and co-CEO of the Whole Foods supermarket chain.

Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle

John Mackey looks up to speak to a purchaser of his new book ,...

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John Mackey closes the cover of his book, Conscious Capitalism, after signing it during a book signing at the Whole Foods in Potrero on January 22, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mackey is both co-founder and co-CEO of the Whole Foods supermarket chain.

Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle

John Mackey closes the cover of his book, Conscious Capitalism,...

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John Mackey signs a copy of his book, "Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business" during a book signing at the Whole Foods in Potrero on January 22, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mackey is both co-founder and co-CEO of the Whole Foods supermarket chain.

Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle

John Mackey signs a copy of his book, "Conscious Capitalism:...

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Patrick Gorman, of San Francisco, talks to John Mackey as he signs his new book, Conscious Capitalism at the Whole Foods in Potrero on January 22, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mackey is both co-founder and co-CEO of the Whole Foods supermarket chain.

Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle

Patrick Gorman, of San Francisco, talks to John Mackey as he signs...

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John Mackey's new book, "Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business" at the Whole Foods in Potrero on January 22, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mackey is both co-founder and co-CEO of the Whole Foods supermarket chain.

Thank you for covering the underside of California's budget "Human costs of fiscal cutbacks leave the poor in a fix."(Jan. 24)

In his State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown celebrated 2012 as a "remarkable year," but for families like Latifa Lewis', "remarkable" is defined by the loss of child care, employment and the basic fabric of their lives. Kudos to The Chronicle for digging beneath the governor's much-celebrated budget proposals and drawing attention to the pivotal importance of supports like child care, which has lost close to $1 billion, one third of its state funding, since 2008. There is no new funding or restoration for the early years of education in this budget, and Latifa's 4-year-old daughter sadly has become one of 96,000 children who have lost their child care in recent years.

As budget negotiations proceed in Sacramento, I plan to share your article with all of our elected representatives.

Any happy endings?

I read with sadness and frustration, albeit some hope, Joe Garofoli's article about the human cost of fiscal cutbacks and the effects on Latifa Lewis, an unemployed Hayward mother of two, and Carmen Loza, who desperately needs dental care.

Saying a prayer for them simply doesn't seem like enough, but it's the best that I can do right now.

I would love to read that Ms. Lewis soon finds a job and an apartment for herself and her girls and Ms. Loza has her dental work completed.

I read so very many of these sad stories almost daily, and it would be great knowing that occasionally there is a happy ending.

From CEO, Whole nonsense

Since controversial "Obamacare is fascism" Whole Foods CEO John Mackey admits he's "not an expert" on climate change ("Book tour audiences get something to chew on," Jan. 23), what in Gaia's name qualifies him to opine that the rapid and unprecedented rise in global temperatures, polar ice loss, drought and extreme weather events are "perfectly natural?"

And if he doesn't believe the climate science, why is this vegan citing greenhouse gases as proof that "the livestock industry is doing damage to the earth?" Maybe he should stick to what he knows: selling groceries.

Timothy Rood, Piedmont

Mackey a quack

Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey says, "I'd like to see health care be like any other business." Market capitalism consists of transactions between willing buyers and willing sellers, all of whom can have access to the same information. No one is a willing buyer of a mastectomy or a colon resection. You can't just take it or leave it. No layman has the information that professionals spend a minimum of 12 years acquiring. No one needing major surgery is emotionally equipped to put out bids for the job, and doctors are highly unlikely to respond to such a bid.

Real people have trusted primary care physicians who refer them to specialists when necessary. Health care is not like "any other business," and if Mackey can't see that, he is hardly qualified to write books about capitalism.

Home is where the airport is

When we travel, we leave our heart in San Francisco, but we always come back because home is where the heart is.

Tad Chase, San Mateo

Honor a colorful aviator

If I were pondering naming the San Francisco airport in honor of someone who would not invite smirks, derision or disbelief, one who contributed to aviation and popularized the airport and aviation, I would offer Ernest K. Gann for consideration, a novelist/aviator who could get permission to land by whistling the theme from the movie "The High and the Mighty," based on his novel.

His fictional works concerned his knowledge of seafaring as well, which makes the locale appropriate for his consideration.

Pit O'Maley, Alameda

Benghazi? Remember Iraq

How interesting to witness the vindictive diatribes of Sens. John McCain, Ron Johnson and Rand Paul attacking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the Benghazi hearings for the attack on our embassy and the loss of our ambassador and three other diplomats ("An emotional Clinton fires back at critics," Jan. 24).

The ultimate senselessness and ridiculousness of this exercise was that over one decade ago, former President George W. Bush, with the assistance and guidance of Vice President Dick Cheney and secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, sacrificed thousands of men and women in our armed forces in Iraq based on contrived information, lies and manipulation of our media and citizenry.

Maybe some of these "intelligent" senators should have taken the recommendation of Rand Paul and "fired" (impeached) those three masterminds.

We should all be exceedingly appreciative of the contributions that Clinton and President Obama have fashioned to protect our country and extract our nation from two unjustified wars.